West Babylon's Shooting Is Too Much for Westhampton Beach in County Quarterfinals

It was clear when brackets were released about a week prior that the Westhampton Beach girls basketball team would have its work cut out for itself in the Suffolk County Class A playoffs.

If they could somehow defeat host West Babylon, the reigning Suffolk County and Long Island champions, in the quarterfinals on Friday night, then the Hurricanes would be forced to deal with top-seeded Shoreham-Wading River in the county semifinals on Wednesday.

But the Golden Eagles showed they’re still a team to be reckoned with this year.

Behind 10 three-pointers, West Babylon defeated Westhampton Beach, 55-40, and advanced to what should have been a competitive semifinal against Shoreham on Wednesday. The winner of that game will play the winner of East Islip/Kings Park in the county championship this Saturday at Stony Brook University.

Westhampton Beach head coach Katie Peters and her team did their due diligence on West Babylon, having not played them during the regular season. The Eagles are led by their all-time scoring leader Lacey Downey, so Peters said the initial game plan was to limit her, which, to the Hurricanes’ credit, they did for the most part. But the Eagles clearly have more scorers behind Downey.

“Our game plan was to try and force those other kids to make shots, and they did,” Peters said. “When Downey goes to the basket, you have to collapse on her in order to stop her, and then she’s able to kick it out for wide open looks at times.”

Westhampton Beach had a hard time getting its offense going at the onset of the game, leading to a six-point early deficit. But following a nice spin move in the lane and ensuing layup by freshman Sandra Clarke, then a long inbounds pass to a cutting Shannon Sweet that led to a layup, the game was tied, 10-10, late in the first quarter.

But after West Babylon senior Rebecca Vitale made one of her two free throws, the Eagles corralled the long offensive rebound and Vitale made a deep three to cut it back to a four-point game. Clarke made one of her two free throws right before the end of the first quarter to make it a close three-point game at 14-11.

That’s when the three-point onslaught from the Eagles would take over.

Sophomore Avery Vergano started the second quarter and it started a quick 7-0 run that gave West Babylon its first double digit lead of the night, 21-11. Later in the quarter, freshman Sarah Caltabiano hit a three, then Vitale hit another deep three, and that was the theme throughout the night.

When all was said and done, West Babylon made 10 three pointers, with Vitale making half of them. Vergano and seventh-grader Jaelynn Burgess each made two, and Caltobiano the other one. Downey was held to 14 points and didn’t make one three.

Senior Kylah Avery was the Hurricanes most consistent offensive player on Friday night, evident in her team-leading 12 points. She also had seven rebounds and two steals. Clarke finished with 10 points, eight rebounds and two assists. Sophomore Shannon Sweet finished with seven points.

Avery thought her team played well despite the loss, and said that West Babylon could have easily scored more points.

“We were playing a little fast,” she said. “We didn’t really get set in our offense, but I think our defense kind of made up for it. We’ve always been a really great defensive team.”

At times this season, the Hurricanes have had ups and downs in their offense, having scored as many as 57 points in a game this season but a low of 21 points in a game as well. Peters said that wasn’t so much an offensive problem as it was just having a young team. Aside from Avery and Laurette Schaumloffel as the team’s only two seniors, the rest of the team was made up of underclassmen, mostly freshmen and sophomores who were making their varsity debuts this season.

“I don’t think it’s offense we need to focus on. I think it’s just consistency,” Peters said. “I think it comes with being young. We’re a young squad, collectively. On some days, we don’t miss, and on some days we were a little off. Today, we were just slightly off the mark. Everything was right on the rim.

“From a perspective of heart and hustle, I couldn’t be more proud of all of the girls,” she added.

Coming into the season, Peters was excited to have a team full of true basketball players, something she said she has never had. To that point, the ’Canes had one of its best regular seasons in recent memory, finishing with a 12-1 League IV record (17-3 overall), and clinched its first postseason berth since the 2019-2020 season, when they won a Suffolk County title before all Long Island and state games were canceled due to the pandemic.

Avery was the last player from that ’19-’20 team, having been called up from junior varsity for the team’s playoff run that season. As she heads off to Northwestern University, she said she’s certainly going to miss her team, but that it’s in good hands going forward.

“I love it. I love the team. I love playing basketball, and I’m really going to miss playing. Going to miss the girls,” she said. “I think especially I’m going to miss this team the most … this team was like family. There are a lot of younger girls who are definitely honing their skills and I think that Jane [Atkinson] is going to step up really well next year, her senior year. I think they’re going to be really good next year.”

Peters said that both Avery and Schaumloffel left their own legacies on the team and both will be certainly missed.

“Both Kylah and Laurette made such a major impact this season in terms of leadership mainly,” she said. “When you talk about sports, especially at the high school level, that’s such a big part of it. I couldn’t speak higher of Laurette, from how she’s brought this team together, how she’s constantly the mother hen of the pack, making sure everybody’s where they’re supposed to be. So she’s going to be sorely missed being on this team.

“Kylah … she’s grown so much as a player, so much as an individual,” Peters added. “I’m so proud of the growth that she’s shown in all facets of her basketball game, as a young lady. She’s really a great kid. Going to significantly miss her, too.”

Four of the five starters in Friday night’s playoff game were all underclassmen — Clarke, junior Sarah Gormley, sophomore Shannon Sweet, and her younger sister, eighth-grader Kate Sweet — and there were a number of others who started at various points throughout the season, leading many to think that this is just the start of another run for the program.

“I would think that would be our goal for certain, going in next year, to be back here, to be back in this mix,” Peters said. “I think our goal the next two, three, four years will be to win another county title.”